Long-range acoustic detection and tracking of the humpback whale Hawaii-Alaska migration

Author

Abileah, Ronald ; Martin, Darel ; Lewis, Stephen D. ; Gisiner, Bob

Author_Institution

SRI Int., Menlo Park, CA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1996

fDate

23-26 Sep 1996

Firstpage

373

Abstract

In recent years the Navy has provided the scientific community with increased access to the long-range underwater Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS). One of the first applications of this system was to monitor the migratory behavior of acoustically active pelagic whales (e.g., blue, humpback, finback). In 1995 the authors compared SOSUS detections of humpback whales with the positions of satellite telemetry-tagged humpbacks. The results suggest that SOSUS can reliably track whale migratory patterns by remote and non-intrusive real-time coverage of large areas of ocean that would be impossible to monitor by any other means. They also discuss the possibility of using SOSUS to estimate whale populations by “turnstile” monitoring of whales passing through a selected portion of the migratory path

Keywords

acoustic applications; aquaculture; biological techniques; monitoring; oceanographic regions; oceanographic techniques; tracking; underwater sound; zoology; AD 1995; Hawaii-Alaska migration; Megaptera novaeangliae; North Pacific; SOSUS; Sound Surveillance System; acoustic monitoring; census; demography; humpback whale vocalisation; long-range acoustic detection; marine animal; marine biology; marine mammal; measurement technique; migratory behavior; migratory pattern; ocean; populations; tracking; underwater sound; Acoustic signal detection; Frequency; Oceans; Remote monitoring; Sonar equipment; Spectrogram; Surveillance; Telemetry; Underwater acoustics; Whales;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS '96. MTS/IEEE. Prospects for the 21st Century. Conference Proceedings

Conference_Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3519-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.1996.572775

Filename

572775